Associated Press

Gov. Mike Rounds on Jan. 9 announced that a donation will help connect the state university system and other states to a technology upgrade that many think is needed to lure a national underground physics laboratory to the Black Hills.

The Great Plains Education Foundation will donate $8 million to connect the universities and the state government system to the so-called I-3 Internet, Rounds said in his State of the State address to the 2007 Legislature.

The universities would be connected to a dedicated 10-gigabyte fiber-optic network and the Homestake underground science lab